46 hours: 2,600 miles

That’s right. From San Antonio to Ohio, our round trip was approximately 46 hours drive time and 2,600 miles. I’m sure people make longer car trips than we did, but that was definitely long enough for me!

We got back home late Wednesday afternoon after about two weeks out on the road. Our trip started in Dallas (as already mentioned) for a wedding, and then we met up with my family and started the long drive to Ohio for a fun and casual family reunion.

It was wonderful getting to see everybody again that we haven’t seen in years! And I was very glad that Cody finally got to finish meeting everybody on my dad’s side. It was a pretty big group (although that’s nothing new for either my mom or dad’s side). I could be wrong… but I believe our total count was 41, with 39 being the largest number of people gathered at the same time. It was great though –the more the merrier. There was always something to do! Our days involved a lot of board games, card games, talking/catching up, eating, and Cornhole. In fact, Cody organized a lovely Cornhole tournament that almost everyone participated in. (This should not surprise anyone if you know my dad’s family.) I’m proud to say that my cousin, Kris, and I were the runners-up in the losers bracket –and while it may not sound like it, that’s quite an accomplishment for me! Besides Cornhole, my mom brought a new game to the table and we (of course) organized a tournament to play this game as well… I don’t know what it’s called, so I’ll call it the Oreo Challenge.
We drew numbers and were paired up, and what you do is sit in a chair and race your opponent. You tilt your head back, place an Oreo cookie on your forehead, and then start squirming and wiggling your face to move the cookie from your forehead, to cheek, to mouth, and the winner is the first to successfully get the Oreo into their mouth with only using your face muscles. It sounds ridiculous; it looks ridiculous; it feels ridiculous as you are doing it… but it is well worth it because it is hilarious and overwhelmingly entertaining with a group! There was chanting and cheering and lots of pictures taken of people with Oreos on their faces.

Towards the end of the trip we drove by my grandparents’ old house (I knew them as Mimi and Poppy), and I guess as expected, the house was completely different. We also visited the cemetery and found their gravesite/tombstone. By then it was basically the end of our trip! We spent more time in the car than we did in Ohio, but it was worth it to see everyone. We enjoyed seeing lots of babies on our trip! Starting in Dallas we saw Cody’s cousin’s newborn, my cousin’s (approximate) one year old, and in Ohio two of my cousins had babies, a 3 month old and a six month old. I really enjoyed getting to see and hold all of these adorable babies!

I know this has gotten beyond long for a blog post, but the last thing to mention cannot be forgotten. Growing up a huge part of our Ohio trip each summer was White Castles. White Castle is a fast-food hamburger restaurant that is not available to us in San Antonio… or at all in Texas (I think). Nonetheless, it was part of the tradition of our trip each year, and something I think we were all conditioned to love growing up. I wish I had the highest count of who ate the most… but sadly overall this trip, I think we ate them the least of any other year –only either 3 or 4 stops. And for myself, I was sick the drive home, so I only believe I had 3 or 4 White Castles the whole trip… it was a very low count compared to previous years… if only I hadn’t been sick!

Anyways, that’s pretty much it! Two weeks on the road; round trip: 2,600 miles and 46 hours from San Antonio to Ohio. Now we’re glad to be recuperating back at home!